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Taken from Windsor Star's online site.

Windsor’s Special Olympics athletes cleaned up at provincials

Siblings Gabe Labrecque, 14, left, and Celine, 16, returned to Windsor, Ont., with several medals on Sunday, July 14, 2013 from the Special Olympics Ontario 2013 Summer Games held in Toronto over the weekend. (REBECCA WRIGHT/ The Windsor Star)

Windsor’s Special Olympics athletes returned Sunday afternoon from the Special Olympics Ontario 2013 Summer Games in Toronto and brought 90 medals home with them – more than half of them gold.

A large crowd gathered outside Windsor’s Via Rail to welcome the athletes home. Friends and families cheered and whistled carrying signs, flowers and balloons as the athletes exited the train. Windsor’s Special Olympics co-ordinator Cindy Labrecque felt a great sense of pride for her athletes. Not one of 47 competitors, ranging from ages 12-63, returned empty handed.

“We’re very proud of our athletes,” Labrecque said. “They were very successful. Everyone won at least one medal. We had some personal bests and it bumped them up to levels they’ve never been at before.”

Kristin Garrett, the rhythmic gymnastics coach, said she had never witnessed a Windsor team come home with so many awards.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” she said. “We’ve been working at this for years. To see how much work they put in and how it has paid off, it’s an awesome feeling.”

Many of the athletes practice twice a week for two hours a day, sometimes more. With the season starting in September, many are eager to compete after many months of training.

When Labrecque’s 14-year-old son, Gabe, was asked about his training, his only response was “Wow.”

“I practiced every week and I ran a 3,000 metres every weekend on the track at my school,” Gabe said. “It was a lot, but it paid off.”

Gabe came home with five gold medals in track and field, and a bronze in shot put.

His sister Celine was just as successful at the event in Toronto. She returned to Windsor with four gold and one silver medal in rhythmic gymnastics.

One of her most memorable moments from the weekend, though, was mentoring and being a role model to a younger athlete.

“I had a little one look up to me so I had to act like a big girl,” Celine joked.

A few years ago, Celine was qualified to attend the 2011 Special Olympics World Games in Greece. However she wasn’t able to attend because she was one week shy of turning 14.

Celine, who turned 16 at the start of the provincial competition, is hoping to qualify for the 2015 World Games taking place in Los Angeles. But before that event, she wants to focus her training on the2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games in British Columbia.

Labrecque said she couldn’t be more pleased for her two kids.

“I’m very proud of them both,” she said. “It’s very satisfying. It gives them an outlet where they are accepted. They’re very successful in their sports.”